Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of data management systems. In particular, the present invention provides a system and a method for managing data during the approval of a transaction. The present invention may be used to modify data in a database after an approval operation.
Description of the Related Art
Data approval systems are used to control the flow of information within an organisation. Due to the allocation of roles and responsibilities within a typical organisation, a decision or “transaction” may need to be presented to an appropriate employee for approval before any alteration is made to the organisation's records or systems.
A decision or “transaction” will typically comprise an implicit or explicit request to modify stored data. For example, in a relatively large company, promotions or pay rises will typically need to be approved by a senior manager and/or a member of a human resources (HR) department. In this circumstance, the “transaction” comprises an explicit request for a promotion or pay raise and an implicit request for modification to company records if the request is approved. The “approval operation” in such an example may be seen as the activity by the manager or HR member that approves or declines the request. If the promotion or pay rise is approved then changes may need to be made to the data comprising employee records, financial records, security permissions, and/or marketing data. Typically, the data to be updated following an approval operation resides in a database. Other examples of possible “transactions” that can be implemented in a data approval system include enrollment in an academic institution, rental of a motor vehicle and the loan of a media item.
In the art, during the design and development of a particular data approval system, it has typically been the responsibility of the developers of the system to choose a particular data management method to manage data during the approval process. This data management method may provide functionality such as handling data before and after a request for approval and integration of approved data into a database. The developers may choose a particular data management method based on their personal preference or the relevance of the method to the approval process in hand. The choice of method is commonly made at an early point in the development of the system and once a choice has been made then the data approval system will be developed in hardware and/or software based on the design patterns for the chosen method. This has meant that data approval systems for different approval processes, for example promotion management versus media rental, have been designed and developed separately as individual bespoke solutions. This then results in a lack of flexibility and a high level of duplication during system development.
Hence, there is a requirement in the art for a flexible approval system that can be efficiently produced with a minimal duplication of effort.